Restaurant smoking ban in Baton Rouge

Yes, those poor things. How will they every survive such oppression?

 

if it was my business, and my customers wanted to smoke, and i banned then and they went somewhere else, i dont think my attitude would be so flippant.

individuals bear the responsibility for their own lives. not you. if you dont like smoke, avoid it. why take the responsibility for managing this very easy decision away from individuals? must the government make every little decsion for everyone? cant we take the risk of hanging around smoke if we want? is it too much to ask the government to stop minding the details of our lives? cant you just leave people alone?

i dont smoke, i hate smoking, i cant stand breathing smoke. i dont smoke weed because it is unbearable for me to have anything in my lungs. but that decision is MINE.

 

Exactly. And when you choose to smoke around others, you are taking that decision away from them, and essentially saying that they don't have the right to be around you because your habit is dangerous to them.

I wish that smokers had this same attitude. The problem is, it's not an issue that only effects the people that do it. I thought that much was clear.

 

banning smoking in public places is fine. this is a question of private property, where your ownership of the location means you get to call the shots. when you own something, the decisions are yours.

if you and i have jury duty, it would be rude to smoke, because we are forced to be there and you cannot avoid it. but who is forcing you to go into a smoky bar? let the people in there make their own decisions.

it doesnt have to affect you if you dont want. nobody is forcing you to go to smoky places. you are the one doing the forcing. you are the one that wants to government to arrest people, not me.

 

Restaurants, although not publicly funded, are public places.

And no one is forcing anyone else to smoke in public. It all depends on your perspective. Smokers are 'forcing' people to make personal decisions based around their own non-essential habits if they aren't tolerant of smokers, or don't want to be exposed to potential health risks. That should not be.

 

pointless word games. my restaurant is mine, nobody is forcing you to come in.

basically you are saying you oppose the rights of private citizens to decide things for themselves because you think you know better than them. you dont think the average person has the good sense to leave a place where others are smoking?

you dont seem to understand that private citizens cant force each other to smoke or not smoke or be in the presence of smokers. only the government has the power of coercion.

it not a matter of perspective. i favor freedom, you favor oppression. i favor the rights of people to live their lives as their own and to mind their own business and manage their own risk and responsibility. you favor the government intervening, forcing the will of some upon the will of others.

who forced you to spend time around a smoker? seriously? never once in your life are ever forced to spend time with a smoker. if you smell smoke, it is because you are near it voluntarily. do you not have legs? can you not walk away from smoke?

understand this: NOBODY IS FORCING ANYONE TO DO ANYTHING UNLESS THE GOVERNMENT IS INVOLVED.

do you understand that?

 

You can say that about most publicly funded facilities as well.

Not even close. I'm not trying to tell people that they can't smoke. I just don't think that they should subject others to it.

Sometimes I'd rather the will of the government than that of some inconsiderate bastard. Sometimes.

You clearly don't understand your very own self-contradiction. You said that if you don't want to go somewhere that people are allowed to smoke, then they should just go somewhere else. So then, smokers are having some impact (force) on those people's decisions. Yes, they also have the choice to not go anywhere at all. But that's also 'bad for business,' something else you have expressed concern over.

Do smokers not have legs? Can they not walk outside to smoke? I've seen it happen. I know they might be out of breath by the time they get to the door, but physically, I think it's possible.:hihi:

You're not allowed to expel other sorts of harmful fumes in public, or present danger to those around you. Remember the thing with asbestos cielings? Should everyone that got mesothelioma just have exercised their choice to work somewhere else? If, in fact, the impacts of second-hand smoke are as serious as is supposed, why should that be any different?

 

of course you are. you are saying that even if they literally own the place they cannot smoke. you are saying you want people to bow down and follow your rules. you know best. everyone else is too stupid to make any sort of decision.

you are still pretending that being around a smoker is not voluntary. again i ask, tell me a scenario where anyone is ever forced to be around smoke. it is a lie to pretend that anyone is ever "subject" to smoke if they do not choose to be.

unless you own the planet, you dont make the rules for everywhere and you are guests in many of the places you go. and as a guest you dont make the rules. when you own a bar, you can be a humanitarian and ban smoking and save people.

you do not know what "force" means. if you choose not to go somewhere because they is smoke there, you were not forced. you can go there and deal woth the smoke if you want.

most people didnt even knew that asbestos existed. they didnt choose or not choose to work with asbestos. see how that is different?

 

Governmental paternalism (or tyranny of the majority) at its best. While Chaos makes some great points, they're counter to basic freedoms. Why not let the marketplace sort it out??

Personally, I love smoking. It cuts off the bad years at the end of your life and provides people with a calm feeling and decreased appetite (oh where are the Americans-are-too-fat people in THIS debate?) Interestingly, I hate being around smoke in restaurants. So if I know of a restaurant this is really smoky, I will frequent one of the 1000 other restaurants that's not. Personal choice. I tend to not like bars that don't have a lot of smoke, because that's part of being at a bar. As you can probably guess, I don't like the really upscale bars that try to trick me into thinking I'm at a nice establishment while jamming me $5 for a beer.

Related topic -- this happened three times -- YESTERDAY. I was around some women that had apparently bathed in the cheapest perfume on the market. At the grocery store, I actually got a mild headache, just from following this one 300 pound chica down the beer aisle. I wish Chaos had been around to ban perfume in public places too, because I'm pretty sure those 2 minutes knocked off a solid 4 years of NLMD's life.

 

Tobacco is a legal product in this country. To tell private business owners they can't allow smokers is just wrong. Once they are done with banning smoking, they'll shift their focus to banning alcohol. After that, it'll be foods that are bad for us.

If tobacco kills as many people as they claim, then why is it still legal? Are steroids really worse than cigs?